Tim Robbins' Polling Place Nightmare: He's Turned Away! (VIDEO)

Politically active actor Tim Robbins almost didn't get to vote in New York.

TMZ reports Robbins was turned away at his polling place.

There was some kind of ruckus and the cops were called.

Apparently Robbins has been voting at that polling place for more than a decade, but today his name wasn't on the register. They told Robbins he had to fill out a provisional ballot but he didn't want to do it. An argument erupted between Robbins and the poll worker. Robbins allegedly got loud and the poll worker said he was calling the cops.

Robbins accused the poll worker of trying to intimidate him so he wouldn't vote.

Robbins went downtown to the City Board of Elections to get proof he was good to vote.

That's where a TMZ camera caught up with him. Robbins held up his papers and told the camera:

"This is what you have to do to vote... I had to go down to see a judge... My name was not on the roll, and I'm not the only one. According to workers, 30 people in 5 hours had been taking off the rolls. You can do the math on that. 6 per hour, per district across America..."

WATCH:

Comments

[christinew]

I monitored polls yesterday in San Diego, CA. 10-20% of the votes cast at the polls I visited yesterday were provisional ballots. Poll workers told voters that were not on their rolls that they should fill out provisional ballots. It appeared that the reasons people were not on the rolls were:

Registered recently, Registrar failed to add voter to the roll
Requested mail ballot, which was not received
Went to the wrong precinct (apparently precinct maps were changed recently). Instead of being redirected to correct precinct, told to cast provisional ballot.

In one case, I was informing a voter of her correct precinct and recommending she go there instead (a few blocks away). A poll worker intervened and told the voter that a provisional was just as good as a regular ballot and that I was lying to her about provisional ballots potentially not being counted. Poll worker implied I was trying to steal her vote by sending her to the wrong place. The voter voted provisional. The poll worker seemed to have been told by the Registrar to tell any voter who wasn't on the roll to vote provisionally, nevermind that ballots may have been different in voters' correct precincts, thus previnting them from voting on certain matters. Registrar claimed poll workers were trained to refer voters to correct precincts, but that clearly was not being done.

[amydaisies]

Gee Tim. Maybe because you told everyone-and very loudly as I remember-that you were leaving the country if Bush won in 2004. Maybe because we took you at your word-which is much more than we can say about you. Still here I guess.

[Traynor]

Tim has every right to protest in America. Loudly or otherwise. That's what Patrick Henry meant when he said "Give me liberty, or give me death". And last I heard, we still had a Constitution and Bill of Rights that allowed dissent, although the Bushies have significantly chipped away at it. Just because he does not support the current government does not give ANYONE the right to take away his vote or voice. God Bless him for staying the course and bringing attention to fraud rampant in the elections. People like TR should be exalted, not vilified. Wish I had his energy!

[ccsky]

You should really contact the Obama for America Voter Protection legal team, if you haven't done so already. I worked yesterday as a challenger to protect the vote and had similar, but not nearly as egregious situations w/challenge ballots ultimately being treated as provisional. Unfortunately it was the head of the polling place that absolutely refused to treat the votes in the proper fashion. Very unfortunate.

It is my hope however, that 44 will help address these issues during his administration. The entire voting system needs to be revamped. I found most of the poll workers totally ignorant of the law, policy and appropriate procedures. I plan to work voter protection as often as I can in elections now. The Robbins situation could have been handled w/a phone call to the O legal boiler room. Many precincts were changed for ppl in my location yesterday, no need to argue about it, go where your vote will count!

[commonsensereignssupreme]

Please make sure to inform the Obama for American Voter Protection legal team that men were standing outside polling precincts in PA with "billy-clubs". Voter intimidation at it's best!!

[mmerose]

This one celebrity will bring much more attention to the problem than a million "civilians," and that is a good thing! They messed with the wrong dude!

[Ono4Hoopono]

Thanks Tim. You stood tall during the darkest hours and took a lot of heat for it. People like you are the even keel who helped us get through this, though this is only the beginning. There is much to do to secure this new voter awareness and make laws that will actually be enforced, and in preventing many of the other abuses you have stood against. Again, my heartfelt thanks.

[Horst]

Registering to vote...and making sure your name is on the roll is not rocket science, especially in New York. I'm a naturalized American so maybe I know more about how the American political system works tha the average Joe, as I had to take an examination (and am not a product of the mediocre public school system).

[sg096]

my daughter made 3 seperate phone calls in tampa to make sure she was on the roll. She was reassured in each call that she was good to go . When it was her turn to vote they told her she was not registered She stood her ground for 3 hours, called for legal help and in the end had to vote on a provisional.
It was her first time voting and she was devastated.
Maybe her info was somewhere on the side of the road.

[ellawensmom]

My sister told me that her husband was at the polls, and he witnessed a poll worker trying to turn black voters away. It didn't work. The woman poll worker had to leave. I'm proud of all the people who had to fight for their vote, or stand in endless lines for their vote, etc.
Good job!

[commonsensereignssupreme]

This is a joke, no one tried to black voters away or any voter for that matter. The people who work these polls are only doing their jobs. Which is to prevent voter fraud. If organizations were not submitting fraudalent voter registration applications there would not be such a effort to make sure every individual was voting properly. Secondly, had the millions of new voters in this election performed their civic duty in past elections (instead of only voting now because there are of same race of a candidate...excuse me the PRESIDENT of the USA) there would not have been as many issues.

[Meggie]

I watched a poll in a red district in IL and am disgusted with the election procedures in this country. Machines that jam and workers that think the way to "fix" it is to spew cast ballots all over the floor, voters who are scammed when they come out of their citizenship ceremonies - register to vote and then find on election day that they were never registered (similar to Rock the Vote), people who have been registered to vote but move within the same state and then find that for various reasons they cannot vote for anything but federal - trying to keep downballot candidates red folks?... Maybe all of this needs to be worked on before the next election. It'll all keep happening until we pay attention next week and next month, too.

[Mulvaney]

Thanks to all those who fought for their vote -- who stood in long lines -- who would not take "no" for an answer.

[Eidolas]

Whoa - Mr. Robbin's nightmare? How did he manage to survive?

[BadgersBite]

He didn't write the headline of the story - nudnik !

[Bitsko]

Here's a much better story about Mr. Robbins' adventures in voting:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/tim-robbins-encounters-confusion-at-the-polls/

[yy2say]

Same thing happened to my husband (we are also in the state of New York). I was with him when he registered in January 2008. I didn't register until March 2008 and I was on the roll and he wasn't. Go figure? He filed his "provisional" ballot, but didn't feel real good about it.

[RallyGrrrl]

A friend of mine was told he had to vote with a provisional ballot because his registration hadn't processed in time. He had sent in everything ahead of the deadline, but Trenton sent his paperwork to the election office for the wrong county. By the time it arrived at the right election office the deadline had passed. Clerical error - totally out of his control.

[jackthecommentor]

Yesterday was a glorious day for Americans---We collectivly decided that no matter how many obstacles were thrown in our way that we were'nt gonna lay down this time and let those who would try to negativly affect the election win this time. We came out in overwhelming numbers and voted. No matter how hard they were gonna try to cheat us out of this one (like they did in the last two) we were'nt gonna let it happen! We let the GOP know that their days were numbered in this country! Kudos to all who voted to change our great country fot the best. Thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for looking towards a bright future where we can once again be that country that the rest of the world loves!! God Blessed America!!

[MalloMel]

I agree, and God bless you, also.

[TN]

When I was in line two people were not on the rolls that were on them before, in a tiny town.

[jmpfjoy]

I am a technology analyst and work in business process improvement. I can see so many ways to make this a more efficient process. Who do we contact? I want to write a letter to somebody! This is the most important right we have and it's a total cluster!

I for one would volunteer my time to work on a reform project for the voting process. Any other takers?

[Internaut]

A total what? A cluster who? Say it! Say it loud, say it proud! Dont be afr . . . THIS COMMENT IS HEREBY DELETED

[Internaut]

I bet you 25 cents Huffpost Bloggers can get away with risque words in their stories.

Hopefully the president-elect will change that.

[MalloMel]

What's a, "risque word?"

[Bitsko]

Contact your federal, state or local election board. Nothing personal, but with all the resources available on the internet, plus a little thing called the phone book, I'm amazed you didn't think of that. Search around.